smithereens

1. (informal) Fragments or splintered pieces; numerous tiny disconnected items.Examples: "The urn shattered into smithereens the moment it hit the ground."; "When the waiter dropped the platter, one smithereen struck him above the knee, and the four remaining smithereens scattered across the floor."; "However, something once happened on the railway there which showed the very best of mankind: heroism, duty, self-sacrifice and calm professionalism under terrible pressure. It is a story which gives us far, far better reasons for remembering this attractive little town, which without these heroes would have been blown to smithereens in a gigantic explosion. (Two railwaymen lost their lives in 1944 when a wagon in an ammunition train caught fire and blew up, an even worse disaster was averted however.)"Synonyms: shards, shivereens, smithersinformalpluralplural-only